NGC Update Service: September 21, 2015

September 21, 2015

New This Week

Announcements

Conference News

• The Guidelines International Network (G-I-N) 12th annual conference will take place from October 7–10, 2015 in Amsterdam. The theme is "Engaging all stakeholders. Guidelines from a societal perspective." To register and book a pre-conference course, visit the G-I-N Conference Web site.
• Registration is now open for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) 2015 Research Conference. It will be held October 4–6 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel and Convention Center in Crystal City, VA. The conference is titled "Producing Evidence and Engaging Partners to Improve Health Care." The latest version of the agenda is now available, including an updated list of speakers. Explore sessions and begin to plan your participation in the meeting. Visit the conference home page for more information.
• The Guidelines International Network North America (G-I-N NA) continues to sponsor a monthly webinar series on topics of interest to the North American guideline community. Information on upcoming webinars, as well as audio files and slides from past webinars, is available on the G-I-N Web site.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Advisories

• September 10, 2015: Invokana and Invokamet (canagliflozin): Drug Safety Communication - New Information on Bone Fracture Risk and Decreased Bone Mineral Density: FDA has strengthened the warning for the type 2 diabetes medicine canagliflozin (Invokana, Invokamet) related to the increased risk of bone fractures, and added new information about decreased bone mineral density. To address these safety concerns, FDA added a new WARNING AND PRECAUTION and revised the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of the Invokana and Invokamet drug labels.
• September 15, 2015: Clozapine: Drug Safety Communication - FDA Modifies Monitoring for Neutropenia; Approves New Shared REMS Program: FDA is making changes to the requirements for monitoring, prescribing, dispensing, and receiving the schizophrenia medicine clozapine, to address continuing safety concerns and current knowledge about a serious blood condition called severe neutropenia. Severe neutropenia is a dangerously low number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infections. Severe neutropenia can be life-threatening.

Health Awareness Topics - September 2015

• National Atrial Fibrillation Awareness Month (see related guidelines)
• National Sickle Cell Month (see related guidelines)
• National Traumatic Brain Injury Awareness Month (see related guidelines)
• Newborn Screening Awareness Month (see related guidelines)
• Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month (see related guidelines)
• Prostate Cancer Awareness Month (see related guidelines and guideline synthesis)
• Sepsis Awareness Month (see related guidelines)
• World Alzheimer's Month (see related guidelines)

How to Participate

• Submit Guidelines: Visit our Submit Guidelines page for information on how to submit your organization's guidelines.
• Suggest a Guideline for Possible Inclusion: Submit your suggestions for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines that you would like to see included in NGC.
• Suggest a Guideline Synthesis Topic: We welcome your suggestions for guideline synthesis topics!

NGC's Sister Resource

Look for Quality Measures in AHRQ's National Quality Measures Clearinghouse (NQMC).